For many, the constant barrage of news in recent days about abortion may seem like a new development. But for the millions of babies killed legally in America for nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade, the current spotlight on America's industry of death can't shine bright enough. The recent celebrations in New York and similar efforts in Virginia show all too clearly that complacency on abortion costs lives. Elections do matter, and we cannot sit idle on the sidelines because lives hang in the balance.

One of the many horrors of abortion is the fact that babies feel pain. And it's not only in late-term abortions. Obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Ingrid Skop tells us in FRC's new publication "Top 10 Myths about Abortion," that the notion that unborn babies can't feel pain is a myth. In fact, research shows that unborn babies can feel pain at 20 weeks, and most likely earlier, often with greater intensity! Yet abortionists administer no anesthesia as they brutally dismember these children.

This week on our Washington Watch radio program, I interviewed Kansas Congressman Roger Marshall (R), a medical doctor who has delivered over 5,000 babies, about his thoughts on what these recent state abortion efforts mean. What he told me should give pause to even the most callous heart:

"I recall very vividly a baby being brought into our emergency room without an arm. And there was a mother who had obviously just given birth to this baby, and she was hemorrhaging -- and of course I rushed to take care of the mom, but I said, 'What happened?' And they said she had just had an abortion procedure done and when they pulled the baby's arm off they realized that this baby was way further along than they had guessed. They had never had a sonogram, and once they pulled the arm off of the baby they said, 'We better stop this abortion procedure.' So what they're talking about now is going to become more commonplace. This will be horrible. This is the worst thing that I have heard of in maybe my entire professional life."

You can listen to the entire interview with Dr. Marshall here. As you can see from the transcript above, it's not for the faint of heart, but it's an important perspective that needs to be heard as the voices of the abortion industry attempt to downplay the gruesome reality of what really happens in abortion.

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.) began the process to get a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (S. 311). This bill explicitly requires health care practitioners to treat born-alive abortion survivors with the same life saving care they would provide to any other baby born at the same gestational age and requires that these infants be immediately admitted to a hospital. Additionally, it includes criminal sanctions against any health care practitioner who fails to provide the necessary care to an infant born alive and enforces federal law to hold abortionists accountable for intentionally killing a born alive infant after a failed abortion attempt.

There is no better time to support the passage of this bill. Identical legislation has previously passed the House of Representatives in 2015 and 2018, but has never come to a vote in the Senate. Now is the time to ask senators to be against infanticide and for voters to hold them accountable for their votes. The increasing openness to a radical agenda by pro-abortion politicians must be brought to light. Call your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to support S. 311, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.